


Wonderful Girls

by Featherine_Aurora



Category: Wonder Egg Priority (Anime)
Genre: Acceptance, Action, Angst, Because this is WEP, Cool Gay Girls, Drama & Romance, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, If I think I can pull it off, Lesbian Character, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Rating was updated, Spoilers up to episode 6, Suicidal Thoughts, Support and Understanding, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29491662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Featherine_Aurora/pseuds/Featherine_Aurora
Summary: As they continue to get to know each other, the bonds between the girls grow stronger. But there are still complications to overcome. As one of those shakes Momoe up, she finds herself unexpectedly getting closer to Rika and they find themselves forced to face an unexpected trial together. This challenge, an unplanned Wonder Egg mission together, proves to be harder than expected and tugs at the mental wounds the two girls bear and those of their egg girls. Momoe and Rika can support each other, but will that be enough?Will probably update this description again.
Relationships: Aonuma Neiru/Ohto Ai, Kawai Rika & Ohto Ai, Kawai Rika/Sawaki Momoe, Sawaki Momoe & Aonuma Neiru, Sawaki Momoe & Ohto Ai
Comments: 10
Kudos: 62





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my first shot at trying to write a fanfic for this really great anime. Hopefully, I've done the characters justice here. Also, I admit to planning to add shipping to this in further chapters along with the general girl friendship stuff. It depends on where the anime goes and whether my own imagination can come up with something good.

Momoe sat down. She was with Rika, Ai and Neiru They were hanging out together. This meeting was something that Ai had pushed for, though she didn’t need to push hard. She’d only needed to mention the idea and have enough enthusiasm to get Rika and Neiru past their weak reluctance to it. Momoe had agreed to hang out immediately. She had only known the other two girls for a very short time, but she had a feeling that they wanted to agree instantly, not doing so for reasons disconnected from what they wanted. 

In fact, once they’d agreed to meet up, Neiru had immediately volunteered to arrange a place and to help pay for it. This cafe she’d chosen was very nice.

_I’d probably never visit a place like this on my own._

For a moment, there was an awkward silence. Momoe still didn’t know the other girls that well and neither Ai or Neiru seemed to be good at conversation. Fortunately, they had an ace at pushing people to talk with them.

“You really like that sunflower hoodie a lot, Ai? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear something else”

Ai glanced down nervously. “I do wear this all the time. I just like it a lot”.

“It is a nice hoodie. Not as great as what I wear, but still.. it suits you. A sunny jacket for a sunny girl”.

Ai clearly liked that comment and smiled warmly. Neiru on the other hand glanced at what Rika was wearing and said “I’ve seen you in that same outfit often now”.

Rika sighed. “Yeah, true”. She then clicked her fingers. “We could go clothes shopping together. I could totally find something else you’d love a lot too, Ai”.

Neiru narrowed her eyes. “You’re hoping that I’ll pay for all your purchases, aren’t you?”.

“Whaaat? How could you say that?!”. 

Rika had a knack for stirring things up and getting people to talk to her. That was useful, given that Ai appeared to be shy and Neiru wasn’t much of a talker. Having Rikka to stop their group from succumbing to social awkwardness created dead silence was a blessing, even if the front she seemed to put up meant some of the things she filled the silence with should probably be not said to be people this new to her.

_Yet we can all laugh at those comments. We were able to laugh at them from the first moment we were together._

Momoe smiled to herself. It was nice, having these friends who recognised her femininity in spite of her presentation. They’d only known her for a very short time, but this group already felt like one where Momoe could trust everyone to accept her and her form of womanhood.

_Me, being like a model._

The idea of another girl seeing her like that continued to make Momo feel like she should be glowing with how happy it made her feel. Momoe took something from the plate. Rika, who’d been about to try and snatch it before anyone could take it, pouted at Momo. She grinned back at Rika. She then glanced at Ai.

_That sunflower suits her perfectly._

Momoe felt like she owed a lot to Ai. The words she’d said to Momoe had been something she’d really needed, far more than she could have imagined. Plus, it was because of meeting Ai that she’d also became friends with Rika and Neiru and these girls already felt like good friends. 

Then Rika grabbed the item she’d taken from her hand.

“You snooze, you lose! Looks like this bit of food will be taken by the ever cute Rika Kawai. Watch me eat this in the most kawaii way ever”. 

Rika took a moment to look smug. In that moment, Momoe snatched it back. “You’re not going to! It’ll be the model girl Momoe who’ll take the prize”.

It might be a new idea, but there was something very pleasing in revelling in the idea of being model-esque rather than masculine. _So maybe I’m revelling in it in a childish way. It feels nice to do so._

“Dammit! Don’t think you can do that to me easily. I’m going to be the one to cutely eat that tasty threat or my name isn’t Rika Kawai”. 

Rika looked ready to launch at Momoe in a burst of childish enthusiasm. Neiru put an end to that though. “You two should stop that. We’ll get kicked out if you carry on acting like this”.

That made Momo feel embarrassed and she said “Sorry, Neiru” as contritely as she could. In contrast, Rika didn’t sound that embarrassed as she said sorry, but that’s how she tended to be. She had her act up all the time. For what Momoe had seen of Rika, especially when dealing with Neiru, this apology was probably very sincere. At least, Neiru seemed to accept it just as much as she accepted Momoe’s apology. 

Rika suddenly looked uncomfortable as she turned to address Momoe again. “Hey, Momo, since we’re mentioning that model and idol stuff, I… ah, I have something I need to.. say...” 

Neiru was glancing at her. Judging by her slight smile, maybe she was trying to be encouraging. It didn’t change the irritation in her eyes, so her face instead looked like a weird mix of emotions. It said something about how serious Rika thought what she needed to say was that she wasn’t struggling not to laugh. Instead, Rika took a deep breath and continued.

“I know that I hurt your feelings a lot when we first met. I might not have said what I said out of malice, but I still made you cry and that isn’t right. I’m really, really sorry”.

“It’s fine, really. I’m over that now”.

Momoe did her best to look nonchalant as she responded, but Rika didn’t seem to be convinced. “I still felt like I should say sorry and do something for you. I have no idea what that something is yet”. She let out a nervous laugh. She then clicked her fingers and grinned. “How about having the cute Rika Kawai owe you a favour?”.

“I don’t have anything favour worthy to ask for”.

“I didn’t say you needed to call it in now”. After shaking her head, Rika added “It’s there for whenever you think of something you really want, something important enough to make up for me calling you a guy”.

Momoe appreciated this gesture. While she did want to put that incident far behind her, she did like that Rika had tried. “Thank you”.

_This is really kind of her._

She went to eat the bit of food she’d taken. But it was gone. She looked at Rikka, who was swallowing something. Rikka then gave Momo a look that pretty much said “What? I’m just enjoying my food”.

Momo smiled and went for one of the last items left. She didn’t particularly like it. None of them did. Neiru probably wouldn’t be getting any more of those for next time.

_Our rich benefactor probably wouldn’t like us ordering delicacy foods and then not eating them._

That’s why she decided to eat this. Momo noted Rika’s smug expression as she grimaced at the taste. It would probably sound silly if she said it out loud, but there was something about Rika’s expression that made her happy to eat this unappealing thing. She had only known these other girls for such a short time, but the acceptance they’d given her made Momo sort of love them all. Seeing Rika happy made Momoe feel even happier. 

Rika then looked at the remaining bits of food on their table. With an unsatisfied tone, she declared “I’m still hungry. You need to buy me another cake, Neiru”. 

“No I don’t. How about you pay for your own stuff at least once today?”.

“Are you serious? A pretty girl shouldn’t need to carry around a purse”.

Neiru at first looked slightly annoyed. But then she smiled and said “This isn’t going to work. We pretty girls can’t all do that otherwise no one is going to pay for anything”.

As she said pretty girls, Neiru seemed to focus on Ai, as though to direct those words at her even as she was responding to Rika. Ai blushed slightly, while Rika noticed that and grinned. She then pouted at Neiru and said “Then we should take turns at treating each other. Please, Neiru”.

“No. I’d not mind it, if I didn’t think you’ll probably weasel out of ever paying. But I know you will”.

Momoe then jumped in with a solution. “I’ll pay for your next slice of cake, Rika”.

“Thank you!”.

Neiru shook her head, clearly not approving. “She isn’t going to learn that way, Momoe. You’re just going to end up paying for all her food.

“I can stand my ground. This is just the one time”.

“Yeah. It’s just once”, Rika added.

“Well, I warned you, Momoe”, Neiru said in a resigned tone. 

Rika frowned. “If you’re going to make me feel bad about this, then fine. Let’s go to one of our homes next time. That way, none of us will need to pay. Right, Ai?”.

“Y..yeah”. Ai said that in a sullen tone. She didn’t seem to pleased with the idea at all. It would probably be at her place, unless Momoe invited them to her place instead. _Maybe I should do that?_

Momoe looked at Rika. She seemed to be very pleased with it. In fact, Ai and Neiru already seemed like they weren’t actually that displeased with the idea.

_Nah, I’ll leave this alone. It’ll probably be fine._

Neiru then spoke up. “You remember what I said about treating people like purses?”.

Rika nodded. “Yeah, yeah. I’m not stupid. But shouldn’t we see Ai’s mother together one day? Plus, meeting together at a friends place when we’re doing the stuff we do could be cool, like we’re in a magical girl show or something”.

Neiru’s expression was neutral as she said “We’re not magical girls. Still, I would like to visit Ai’s home. That’s if you’re alright with it, Ai?”.

Ai’s expression brightened. “Yeah, I am. I’d love that”.

Rika glared at Ai, while clearly putting up a show of looking offended. “Hey, why don’t you react that way to me?!”.

“Because I know Neiru won’t eat all the snacks when she visits, which you already did during _your_ visit”.

Neiru gave Rika an icy look, as though what she’d done had been the highest of high crimes. Rika held up her hands defensively. “I promise not to eat all the snacks. Okay?”.

Ai gave a resigned sounded “Oookay”. In a perkier tone, she added “Sure, we can meet up at my place”.

“Yes!”.

Rika pumped up a fist as she said that. Neiru didn’t say anything. But she did glare at Rika, as though to say “You’d better not break your promise” with just her look. Rika responded by smiling while clearly trying and failing to look nonchalant about her win. Neiru gave up on her glare and they all returned to finishing up their food and drinks. As they did, Momoe felt happy.

_I still have no idea how long I’ll need to keep up this egg saving work. I might need to keep at it for ages and go through a lot of pain. I could still die doing this. But now I have these girls as part of my life and that seems to be enough to make the future seem brighter._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this is the idea I was able to come up with for continuing this a while after watching episode 6. Hopefully, it meshes okay with the previous chapter.

Hours had passed, but Momoe was still fuming over her last conversation with the others. When she’d heard that her uncle was thinking of marry Ai’s mum, she was immediately delighted. 

_We’d be like family._

That was what Momoe had felt and outright said to Ai. It was an idea that had filled her with so much joy that she’d actually bounced with it. She was just that happy about the idea of becoming closer in that way to Ai. But that feeling was something the others wouldn’t share with her. Momoe had thought that Ai would be a bit happy about the idea of them being family. But she was angry about the marriage idea and she wouldn’t tell them why. Plus, Rika kept entertaining awful ideas about her Uncle and Neiru even joined in. _I don’t understand. Why can’t they accept that my Uncle is a good guy?_

Momoe was in her bedroom, sitting on her bed. She flopped backwards on to her bed, her head bouncing slightly as she did so

_This keeps getting worse. I don’t know how to deal with it._

Her frustration kept bubbling within her. Momoe decided that she needed to try and calm down. She’d only be ruining her own evening if she stayed in this mood. Momoe took out her pendant and activated it. The creature within it appeared in its small form. Momoe started petting it with one of her fingers.

_I basically have a pocket monster. So cool._

Momoe did manage to relax a bit and get into playing with her pet. Then she heard an alert sound from her phone. Momoe sighed, used the word to make her pet disappear into the pendant and sat up to check her phone. It was Rika. She frowned, then read the message.

 **Rika** : Hey, it’s me. I hope you know that I really don’t mean anything with my suggestions. I was just voicing what came to mind out loud. Plus, you know Ai. There would need to be something major for her to act like she is. Yeah, I admit that my own family situation is a bit abnormal, but it’s not like there aren’t lots of things out there to be worried about. We see lots of people like that through our egg work, right? It’s not odd if we start thinking that something bad is happening or has happened to make Ai act the way she did.

That was true. Momoe had probably been a bit too harsh to the others. She trusted in her Uncle and was stil hurt by the idea that he’d done anything to Ai’s friend. But them being worried about Ai wasn’t totally unjustified. From Rika and Neiru’s perspective, her Uncle could be a bad person and anything said by Momoe would be biased and Ai has to have a good reason for why she was acting the way she was. Right? That’s what Momoe hoped. She liked Ai and really wanted this to be something they could get past easily.

_If only she’d open up to us and settle this already._

Rika’s words had helped make her feel a bit less angry. Still, this was coming from Rika specifically. So Momoe had something she wanted to point out. She typed up a response.

 **Momoe** : You didn’t seem worried to me. You seemed more excited than anything.   
**Rika** : You know how I am.  
**Rika** : Okay, I was a bit into figuring it out like a mystery. I guess it was kinda wrong to do that about a person you know. But I really wanted to get the right answer and solve this, like a cute Sherlock Holmes or something.

Momoe grimaced. Then another message came in.

 **Rika** : Sorry. Really. I know having people talk shit about you can be awful and, even if my mum is actually shit, I guess it would be the same for people you actually cared about or could respect. So, again, I’m really sorry about talking shit about your Uncle.  
**Rika** : Forgive me? 

Momoe let out a groan. Rika was exhausting. But she wasn’t a bad person. Just a person who needed to really work on her communication skills. For an idol, she’s really bad at that. Maybe she was better at it, or maybe she was lucky.

She sent a message back.

 **Momoe** : Yes, I’ll forgive you.  
**Rika** : Thank you, thank you, thank you!  
**Momoe** : Why three times?  
**Rika** : Isn’t three a good number, like it’s lucky or something?  
**Momoe** : I don’t know. Maybe.  
**Rika** : Google it.  
**Momoe** : You can do that yourself  
**Rika** : Please do it for me.  
**Momoe** : Fine  
**Momoe** : It is.  
**Rika** : See! Plus, three times add emphasis and that’s really important. There’s another reason.  
**Momoe** : Okay, whatever.  
**Rika** : Don’t “Whatever” my energetic thanks!  
**Momoe** : Sorry. :)  
**Momoe** : Sorry, sorry  
**Rika:** Don’t steal that from me.   
**Momoe** : :(

They kept sending messages to each other. Even as Momoe got ready to sleep, she kept getting messages from Rika. _Is she feeling needy or something?_

Momoe was soon lying in bed, kept up by messages from Rika. Those messages kept coming, though with more spelling errors and some instances of her sending nonsenses messages that Momoe needed Rika to explain.

_If you’re that tired, stop and let me go to sleep._

Eventually, Rika’s messages stopped. At that point, Momoe was so tired that she fell asleep pretty much instantly.

* * *

Momoe glanced around her.

_Where am I?_

Obviously, she was dreaming, but Momoe felt awake as she felt in the dream train station. This was an egg mission, but this place was totally unfamiliar to her. She was in a flowery field, near the coast and with a lighthouse nearby.

“How could this happen again?!”.

Momoe spun around, recognizing that voice instantly. Sure enough, it was Rika and she was running towards her. As she did, she yelled out. “Momoe! Quick explanation, we’re sharing a dream. Sorry! Guess this might be my fault”.

Rika then skidded to a halt in front of her and grinned awkwardly. Momoe just looked at her silently in shock.

“This might be new to you. Is it?”.

Momoe remained silent. So Rika continued speaking. “Guess so. Okay, we’re in my dream world. Nice field, right? We all have our own dream place and you’re in mine. This happens when two people like us have an egg and fall asleep at the same time, which I guess we did”. 

Momoe just gave a blank look in response. This has to be a joke right?

Her feelings about what Rika had said had softened, but to be made to work with her and this soon? She'd never done this with anyone yet and now she needed to do this with Rika?

“Yo! Say something, Momoe”.

Momoe finally focused on Rika properly. “I’m.. in your dream?”.

“Yeah. Sheesh. Momoe, I just told you that”.

“Yes. You did”.

_Wait a minute. This can’t be a coincidence._

Momoe then grabbed Rika in a panic and angrily said “Did you do this _on purpose_? Did you keep me up so you could make me enter this world with you?”.

“Woah, hands off”. Rika pulled away. “Do you really think I’m like that? I just wanted to talk with you. You know, because we’re _friends_? Plus, Ai’s gone silent and Neiru gets annoyed when I message her at late hours. Anyway, I didn’t expect this to happen, okay? I just got so caught up with talking to you that I didn’t want to stop”.

That was actually kind of flattering. “Sorry, Rika. I guess I’m just on edge, with our recent fight and then this happening. I didn’t know this sort of thing even could occur”.

Rika gave a confident smile. “Apart from being able to work together and having two eggs to protect, this is just what we do normally. It’s just like a co-op mode and we did okay at that stuff at the arcade. There’s nothing to worry about”. 

Maybe that was true, but Momoe still felt uneasy and anxious. Rika fortunately noticed this and said “Maybe we should go to the lighthouse first and let you sit down. You need to have your head in the game, so I guess I can wait a bit before breaking my egg”. 

“Thanks. I appreciate that”.

Rika then lead the way, Momoe following her. As she took in her surroundings, the anxiety of being in an unfamiliar place started to be balanced out by the natural beauty around her. _Compared to my train station, this place is really pretty._


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I have a new chapter up, finally. I've been working on this team up mission and I ideally want to get the currently partially done chapters for it and catching up to episode 7's end up by the end of this weekend. But I'm not good at estimating my rate of work, so we'll see. Hopefully, I've at least given you an enjoyable chapter to read here.

“Feeling better yet?”.

Rika was looking down at Momoe, who was sitting down in a dazed state, as she said that. Momoe blinked, then focused on Rika. She looked concerned to a degree that was kind of frightening to see on someone who rarely let that sort of feeling show to others. It also made Momoe feel guilty. Yes, she’d been hurt by Rika’s comments about her Uncle, but she had hit back with a comment about her Mum’s different partners that had clearly hurt Rika.

_That’s better dealt with anywhere but here._

So Momoe did her best to give a comforting smile. That seemed to work as intended, with Rika giving a sigh of relief.

“We should crack open our eggs now. Right?”.

“Yeah”.

“Should we do it in a particular spot?”.

Rika put a finger to her chin. “We have two options. We could do it in here and we can use this lighthouse as a fort. We could also use it to look over the area and spot our enemies, like the Wonder Killer if we’re lucky. But we might get stuck in here and have to wait things out and try again. The alternatives are out in the fields or in the forest. Being out in the open obviously gives us more room to move around, but we could be overwhelmed by a ton of Seeno Evils and Haters. As for the forest… Ai told me it was like fighting in a horror movie setting for her. I don’t think it’s that bad, but I’d put it at the bottom of our choices”.

“Ai was here?”.

“Yeah. I did mention that I’d done this before in our first talk here. That been with Ai. It was a bit messy at first, but we were able to really kick some ass one we figured out how to do the partner thing here”. Rika then grinned. “So you can rely on me to guide you through this”.

“Thanks”. Momoe smiled. “I’m not a newbie though, so I think I can hold my own”.

Rika rolled her eyes. “I know. I didn’t suddenly get amnesia. I’m just saying that you can lean on me during this partnership”.

“I don’t think it would be good if I did that”.

“Huh? What?”.

“Leaned on you”.

Rika let out a snort. “Yeah, don’t do that. Tell more jokes like that, I mean”. She then grinned. “You can lean on me all you want”.

Momoe forced out an awkward sounding laugh.

“Oh, yeah, you have issues with hearing that sort of talk”.

“Yeah”

“Sorry”.

Momoe offered a friendly smile in return. “I know. It’s okay”. She then grinned. “In fact, I wouldn’t say it’s that bad at all when coming from you”.

Rika’s face turned red and she had a silly smile on her face as she, with a blend of excitement and nervousness to her voice, said “Really? That’s great… because doing that sort of talk with you is great. Because you’re great. And attractive. Wait, that sounds odd. Can I have a moment to shut up and let us move on?”.

“Sure”.

Rika took a deep breath. When she spoke, she was back to normal. “So, wonder egg mission. We still haven’t decided on what we’re going to do. Any thoughts?”.

Rika looked at her expectantly. Momoe took a minute to think, then voiced her opinion. “I have an idea. You could open your egg in front of the entrance and keep it secure. At the same time, I’ll open my egg at the top of the tower and take a look around to see what pops up. Then I’ll run down here and we can decide what do next based on what I see”.

“Sounds like as good a plan as any”, Rika said with a merry tone that only someone like her could muster in this place. More seriously, she added “Of course, there’s a reason why I tend to just improvise. In this place, you normally find out about what you’re facing when it throws a punch or stab at you. But your idea is good enough. How fast can you be at describing what you see”. 

“I’ve never timed myself. But I’m sure I can do it fast enough”.

“Good”. Rika raised her hand and made a fist. Momoe bumped it, which made Rika grin.

“That’s the spirit!”.

Momoe then went up the stairs of the lighthouse. As she did, she realised that she felt much more at ease. None of the issues that had caused her to walk off in their last meeting had one away or been resolved. But despite that and this new situation, Momoe felt like everything was back to normal for her and Rika.

* * *

“Ready?!”.

Rika had some impressive lungs. Momoe had feared that she’d not be able to hear Rika up at the top. But Momoe was able to hear her well enough.

_What was I going to do if I didn’t hear her? Go back down?_

That was something she should have asked when still at the bottom. Momoe shouted back “Ready!”.

She hoped that her response had been loud enough. Fortunately, Rika’s response confirmed that she’d been heard. 

“Drop now!”

Momoe then dropped her egg. It cracked, then grew larger and larger. Then it popped, more like a balloon than an egg, revealing the person who’d materialised inside the egg. It was, of course, a girl. To be precise, it was a girl and not a woman. Momoe rarely had adult eggs. At least she felt comfortable enough with herself to wear clothes that made it clear she was a girl herself. 

“I thought Heaven would be a lot nicer than this”.

The egg girl mumbled that to herself while dusting herself off and glancing at the floor. Momoe then spoke up. “Sorry, but this isn’t heaven. I’ll make sure you get there, but we have a challenge to go through first”. 

“What? That’s not fair!”.

Momoe took a moment to examine the girl. She had brown hair in a bob cut and was wearing a long pink jumper with black leggings and grey trainers. She then made her effort to calm the egg girl down. 

“I’ve done this before. So you will definitely get through this. I promise you that”.

“Really?”.

“Yes. I even have a partner downstairs. I’ll admit that what’s ahead might be hazardous and stressful. But you have two immortal guardians to protect you. So you are definitely going to get through this. We will definately protect you. That's a promise. Okay?”.

The girl nodded. Momoe then went to the edge of the lighthouse balcony and looked around. She saw the Wonder Killer out in the open and not far from them . She also saw the Seeno Evils and their telltale paint splatters. They were still a bit of a distance away, but they were moving fast. After doing her best to fix the position of the important details in her mind, she took Chiaki's hand and they made their way down their stairs. Chiaki seemed hesitant to go down, so Momoe did her best to be reassuring as they went down. When they reached the bottom though, the fruits of effort was instantly destroyed when she saw the girl now standing with Rika.

“You! What the fuck are you doing here?".

As she said that, Chiaki's expression turned hateful. The other girl just looked startled at first, though soon frowned and sarcastically spat out "You’re here? That’s just perfect”.

“You two know each other?”.

Despite Momoe's question, the two girls ignored her and just glared at each other. Then Chiaki decided to stop that for a moment to growl out “Yes".

This other girl, a red haired girl wearing a brown cardigan over a green dress, faced Momoe and said "Hi. I’m Mami. It’s nice to meet you too. I guess. I don’t fully understand the situation we’re in. I know I’m dead. But what’s the deal with everyone else”.

Momoe did her best to be reassuring and kind as she responded. That was something she could handle, even it had in the past involved girls seeing her as a reassuring and kind man.

“Me and Rika are alive. We enter this place to protect girls like you from the threats of this world and defeat them so you can pass on properly. For that task, we have special abilities we can tap into to fight the creatures here. So it's not like your security is being left to two ordinary girls. You're safer than that”

Mami nodded. “I see. What about her?”.

She gestured towards Chiaki, who was still doing her best to convey her displease at Mami’s presence. Chiaki answered Mami’s question bluntly. “I’m dead too. Thanks for the help with that, _friend_ ”.

“What did I do?”.

“It’s more about what you didn’t do. You abandoned me”.

“What the hell? No I didn’t”.

“Yes you did. I couldn’t see you at all after classes. You’d always run straight home and I couldn't talk with you at all".

“I couldn’t handle Himiko-senpai’s abuse. I couldn’t be in that building any longer that I needed to”.

“I was enduring her abuse too and you know it. You know I had other issues as well and I needed my best friend with me, yet….”. 

The two girls continued to yell at each other. Rika glanced between the two egg girls, then focused on Momoe. “Last time, me and Ai had two people who got along. Looks like we’re not so fortunate, Momoe”.

The indifference in Rika's statement stopped the argument. Chiaki and Mami turned their ire towards Rika, glaring at her instead of each other. That only make Rika smile with amusement. “That’s not going to work on me. As an idol, I’ve endured frostier people that you”.

“Who are you?”.

That made Rika frown slightly. Momoe on the other hand had to stifle a giggle.

“Don’t laugh at that! Pouring enough effort to become even a average idol is backbreakingly hard”.

“Sorry”.

"You can make amends for that later". Rika then addressed the two egg girls. “So, how are you two connected? Are you family? Arch-enemies? Lovers?”

That last suggestion made Mami choke up with shock. Once she recovered, she replied "We’re friends".

Chiaki glared at her and Mami glumly added “Former friends now, I guess. We were drifting apart due to some… complications in our lives. A lot of complications. I’m sure you can guess how bad they were by the fact that we’re both dead. We both had our own issues that made being decent friends for each other harder. We were saying things we shouldn't have towards the end, but we were just both in a bad place. That's all".

Rika responded with a grim smile. “Yeah, I get that".

Chiaki then said “You weren't so understand when we were alive, Mami. In fact, you had no issue telling me that I didn’t have things that bad",

“Yeah. It was harder than you, think, but I did say something that awful”. Mami sounded shaken. But then she angrily retorted with “I guess it’s also easy for you to play the blame game now. But you were hardly understanding of my situation when we were alive”. 

“That doesn’t change anything about how you...”

“Okay, please stop!”. Momoe needed to take control of this situation. “I might not know much about your situation, but I do know that we have enemies incoming. We need to go now”.

The two girls were startled for a moment, but nodded. Rika looked very pleased to be moving ahead to the mission. “So what about the Wonder Killer? What did you see up there?”

“I got its location and I should still be able to lead you to it in spite of our delay, Rika”.

Rika gave her a thumbs up. At the same time, her mentioning the delay caused by this argument caused both egg girls to direct their irrate looks at her again. Chiaki then said “Do I need to really rely on you two for protection? What if I just locked myself up in here?”.

“There’s a horde of knife wielding creatures coming right here. Do you want to face that?”.

Chiaki looked at Momoe, apparently unable to respond to her words, but also still unhappy. Momoe, mustering the gentlest tone she could, said “What is this about, Chiaki? I know that this is an awful situation and that this is definately very stressful for you. This isn't something that I'd wish on anyone. But Rika and I will have a harder job protecting you if you aren't able to cooperate with us. All we want is to help you escape this place, but that will require us to work together. I know that is asking a lot from from you, so could you please let me know what your concern about going with us is? I want to try and be someone you can rely on here, but that does mean I need to ask you to talk to us".

Chiaki's gaze shifted evasively. “I don’t know if I can trust you two. I definitely can’t trust her”.

Rika then decided to answer this issue in her own way. “Those creatures can get in here. I know that from experience. These walls don't amount to much unless you can fight. If you’re with us, we can do that fighting for you to protect you. If you want to be cynical about it, you can at least know that they'll have other targets to focus on other than you if you’re with us”.

She then grinned and conjured her weapons. They were two blades, sword like in length, though they appeared to be large box cutters. They looked odd. But Momoe thought that Rika looked cool with them and sounded cool as she posed, with one blade over her shoulder and one by her side, and declared “Personally, I’d say I’m a lot more than a decoy. I’ve beaten these guys plenty of times now and I’m not ending my win streak today. Nothing out there is going to stand a chance against me”.

That had an effect on the two egg girls. Mami's expression brightened while Chiaki seemed calmer as she, in a still mody tone, replied “I guess you have a point. You can probably be relied on. At least more than..". 

Rika stopped Chiaki from continuing with a fierce statement. “We’re here to protect you two and we're going to do our job even if we have to force you to cooperate. So shut up and follow us. Your choice is that or to get torn to pieces by the creatures here. Understand?”.

The two girls nodded. Momoe felt that, despite working for now, Rika's words had been blunt. So she decided to put forward something more positive.

“We're going to protect you two and we're going to find the thing in this world out to get you two, the Wonder Killer. Please, just follow our directions and we'll do everything in our power to keep you safe. Okay?".

Chiaki actually smiled, though it was shamefully as she said “Are you doing a good cop, bad cop thing? Because it was silly enough when I got that from my Aunt when I was much younger and it's sillier coming from two girls about my age".

“No. Maybe? Look, I want to be understanding, but I’ll be as ready to use the stick approach as Rika is if you two do something to endanger each other”.

Rika sniggered. “Yeah, you’ll totally “use the stick”, Momoe”.

“Shut up”. 


	4. Chapter 4

They exited the lighthouse, quickly entering into a run. They were heading towards the Wonder Killer, with the sound of the Seeno Evils and Haters behind them, coming closer and closer. While Momoe and Rika had been building up their stamina, their group could only go as fast as the slowest of them. That was Mami, who was already breathing heavily and struggling to keep pace.

“When did you become such a slowpoke?”.

“Chiaki, I didn’t go out or exercise much before I died, remember?”.

Fortunately, Rika just needed to give them a look to stop talking a focus on running. Momoe gave Rika an appreciative smile, then focused on what was ahead again. She had the responsibility of leading them over these flowery fields to the Wonder Killer and she couldn’t afford to screw that up. As she did, she spotted some Haters ahead of them, now charging towards them with their teeth bared.

_They were probably waiting for us._

Momoe looked at Rika and saw that she was already taking out her pendant. She did the same and they let out their Pomanders. The two egg girls looked amazed at the two large creatures that suddenly appeared before them, while Momoe and Rika readied themselves for combat. The Haters ahead continued to rush at them, but their pets struck first. The Turtle and the Crocodile were both surprisingly fast, able to meet the Haters before they reached the girls and start attacking the Haters with a combination of their bulk, ramming of the Turtle’s hard shell and the Crocodile’s snapping jaws. The rage that drove the Haters was displaced with fear at facing their natural predators.

“Your pet is a crocodile? Sweet”.

Momoe smiled at that comment from Rika. “Yeah. When I first awoke it, its snapping was a problem. But we’ve got past that”.

“Nice. So what do you think of mine? It’s called Mannen by the way. Great name, huh?”.

Rika sounded expectant. Fortunately, Momoe’s honest opinion probably happened to be what she wanted to hear.

“Yeah. Your pet is like you. Cute”

Mami then interjected. “You were talking about defending us, right? So, focus!”.

She was right. Still, Momoe vowed to talk with Rika about their pets again at a better time. The Seeno Evils and Haters behind them had started to catch up with them, Momoe and Rika now needing to spar with the first arrivals to keep them away from the egg girls. At the same time, the Haters ahead were doing their best to fire themselves in order to rush at Rika and Momoe even in the face of their pets. They needed to take this moment to break through to the Wonder Killer.

“We need to charge now while we have an opening”.

Rika finished off a couple of Seeno Evils, then took a moment to say “Got it” and turn to Chiaki and Mami. “Hear that? We need to to follow our lead, quickly”.

Mami's eyes widened and she, sounding fearful, replied “I don’t know if I can run any more. My legs are stinging with so much pain".

Momoe quickly thought of a solution. “Grab on to my back. I’ll carry you”.

“Are you sure?". As she said that, Mami narrowed her eyes. "I mean, I guess you might be able to carry me, but I'm not even your girl to protect"

“I’m not going to abandon you, so I’ll do this. Please, trust me”.

Mami nodded and did as Momoe instructed. Their group then ran ahead as the two pets attacked the Haters in front and gave them an opening. Soon, they made their way to their target. As they got there, the Seeno Evils and Haters retreated, leaving the girls to the Wonder Killer. Momoe put Mami down and they continued at a slower speed.

The Wonder Killer was in a sunken area, with a raised incline in their way. That allowed them to get closer to the location of the target without being spotted by crouching and then laying down to take a peak down. Before them was an adult woman. She looked to be an older woman, middle aged, but Momoe wasn’t sure if that was simply the effect of how the signs of being worn out made her look older. This woman could be younger than she looked. However, Momoe supposed that it didn’t matter much. This was a Wonder Killer, just a copy of a person. Even then, a Wonder Killer’s true form, while different for each Wonder Killer, was always much more inhuman. 

“She’s here?”.

Judging from Chiaki’s reaction, she probably knew this Wonder Killer well. Momoe was going to ask her for information, but she didn't get a chance. Chiaki got up and was staggering down the other side of the incline towards the Wonder Killer before they could stop her.

“Natsuki! Aunt Natsuki!”.

Momoe gritted her teeth. Getting a chance to strike first was a blessing and that chance was gone. Instead, this situation was getting worse with every bit of ground Chiaki covered.

They followed her down the incline, Momoe and Rika practically skidding down the slope. As they reached the bottom, Chiaki was standing a few metres from the Wonder Killer. This sight, of a teen girl overcome with with a turbulent mix of emotions, shock, surprise, sadness, relief, momentary flashes of joy even, in this flowery field with her softly smiling aunt, could be considered beautiful on its own. But to Momoe, it was a monster in disguise that had lured its prey into range. 

“I wish you were smiling, Chiaki. We’re seeing each other once more after your choice and yet you look so grim”.

“You know why”.

“I don’t. I mean, I know I'm hardly flawless. I said some mean things when we last met. But you know your Auntie, right? When I'm like that, I just need some time to get back to normal. Then I can give my lovely niece the love she deserves".

“ I know we've had some great times together, times where I was so happy. But they make the bad times hurt even more and I never know when they'll happen. I don't know what to expect and it's so scary. You’re awful.".

“You don’t really think that, do you?".

“I don't know. I don’t know what to think or who to trust any more. Not any more. I thought I at least had you to rely on, then you were gone”.

“That’s awful to hear. You should have at least one person that you trust. What about that friend of yours? Her name was Mami, wasn't it?”.

“We’re not friends any more". 

“Sorry. You know how my mind is. I can be so forgetful. Still, at least I can still try and be someone you trust". The Wonder Killer.. Natsuki looked cautiously hopeful. Chiaki gave a grim smile in response. “I'm here, aren't I?".

"True", Natsuki responded melancholically. “I hope that getting here wasn’t too painful". 

“It hurt a lot. What about you?".

“Same. Guess your Aunt is as silly as ever. I thought maybe even something like this could be done is an easy way. I was so wrong there”.

“That’s not fair. We made the same choice and I kind of hoped that I could get here painlessly too".

“It’s odd, but it’s nice to hear you say that, like I feel less stupid now". The Wonder Killer let out a laugh, then said "Sorry, sorry. That shouldn't be said about our suicides". 

“I’ve missed you. You hurt me a lot, but I still miss you so much, Aunt Natsuki. When you were around, you made the pain from everything else stop, at least for a while. My loneliness, my heartbreak, all the pain from how I was treated at school, You could make it all go away when I was with you”. Chiaki then looked at the Killer angrily. “Why did you leave me alone?".

“I’m so sorry, Chiaki. But I had my own pain that I couldn’t take any more".

“I want this pain to stop. But I'm stuck with it, even here".

"I want that too, for the both of us. I want our pain to stop. I want to be with the part of my family that I treasure more than anything. I want to be with you, forever, away from everything that hurts us".

The Wonder Killer started to change, to become monstrous. It became larger and larger. Its body also started swelling in areas like its arms, its legs and its stomach. It was like it was bloating in some areas and gaining muscle mass in others. Chiaki didn’t seem to care though. If anything, for the first time since they’d met, Chiaki seemed to be truly happy.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make the pain stop for good. Just let your Aunt embrace you and she’ll hug the pain away”.

It moved to hug Chiaki, but Momoe could tell simply by looking at its hands that this couldn’t be allowed. The nails in its transformed hands were now knife-like claws.

"Come with your Auntie, Chiaki. I'll make sure things will be as they should be. Us together forever. Please, come with me, Die with me. Die with me again. This time, we can do this together, like I wanted".

“Don’t you touch her!”.

Momoe surprised even herself with the degree of anger in her voice as she yelled that. But she didn't care at all to dwell on that. She had something she wanted to hurt horribly. She charged at the Wonder Killer, stabbing its arm with her spear. She yanked it out, resulting in fluids oozing out of the wound. Then she quickly stabbed at its hands, injuring its right hand and making it pull back from Chiaki to avoid Momoe’s efforts to repeat this feat.

“How dare you get between me and Chiaki! You’re ruining our reunion!”.

Momoe response was to keep attacking it and yell "Reunion? You're trying to murder your own niece!".

“What you doing?”, Chiaki cried out. She seemed ready to run at Momoe and attack her. Rika grabbed her, at first trying to restrain her. Then she seemed to give up on that and yelled at Mami. “Grab her. I need to fight this thing”.

She then passed Chiaki over to Mami, who did that. There was the issue of how long Mami could hold Chiaki, which probably wasn’t long at all. Just another reason for the two of them to end this fast.

Momoe was glad to have Rika join in. She had been fighting the Wonder Killer on her own. Her frenzy of spear strikes had given the advantage at first from sheer aggression, in spite of her attacks lacking focus beyond trying to keep hitting it. But the Wonder Killer started blocking more of her attacks with its nail blades and when it started stabbing back, Momoe was forced to effectively deal with ten blades stabbing at her. Its flexibility with its fingers made it very hard for Momoe to block or parry its strikes. That flexibility made it akin to dealing with having a bunch of enemies with blades trying to attack her at once. 

But then that’s when Rika intervened, getting in front of Momoe and using her two blades to parry the strikes of the Wonder Killer for her. She took the opportunity given and struck back with a spear blow. That injured it badly and Rika didn’t hesitate for a moment in taking this opportunity. She jumped forward, slashing at its arms with her two blades. It pulled its arms back, which allowed Rika to aim a strike from her right blade right at its chest, with her left blade already flying forth in her grip to stab it again. The first blow pierced its chest, getting in deep. At the same time, Momoe made her own move. That was to make the most of her spear’s reach to thrust the tip right at its face. 

“Damn you”.

That was what Momoe exclaimed as she found her blow blocked by the blades of both its hands. Rika’s blades were embedded in the Wonder Killer, but it had stopped Momoe’s strike. Plus, Rika needed a moment to remove her blades and the Wonder Killer used that. It swung its arms at them, knocking them flying. “I’m not playing your game!".

It leapt away, getting a considerable distance away. Both Momoe and Rika tried to go after it, but it pulled out something new before it even landed back down. That was to start firing its nails at them, one hand firing at Rika and one at Momoe. Rika spun her blade, taking out all the projectiles that kept flying at her before they could as much as scratch her. Momoe’s response to this new attack was to evade it, jumping, crouching and doing everything she could with her body to not let any of the nails in this barrage hit her. As she did this, she made her way towards Rika. Rika noticed this and did the same while continuing to protect herself from this attack. They were soon standing together, with Rika taking on the nail fire from both of the Wonder Killer's hands.

“Let’s end this bitch with a bang. Keep behind me and I'll keep you safe until we're close”.

Rika said those words so confidently that Momoe felt a bit revitalised just from hearing them. She nodded and then they charged forward. The Wonder Killer kept up its focused barrage and even made a few jumps as the girls advanced, hoping to keep them away from it. But the two girls were relentless. No matter what it did, it couldn't get through Rika's tireless defense, not could it keep them from closing the gap. Then it barely evaded a spear strike from Momoe. The second time they reached it was the end for it.

Rika delivered a relentless assault of slashes aimed at its chest with her two blades. She then vaulted over it and it didn't even have a moment to blink before Momoe's spear pierced right through its chest.

* * *

The Wonder Killer lay on the ground, badly injured. It seemed to be sobbing. It was a Wonder Killer and so Momoe knew better than to trust appearances. But this made Momoe feel uncomfortable.

“ I love Chiaki, I really do. Why won’t you let me take my niece with me? I just want us to be together. I love my niece".

Momoe, standing next to it, replied “Maybe you do. But that doesn't justify getting her to follow you to the grave”.

"Yeah. You're right. I did something really awful again, didn't I? I'm sorry".

Momoe had to finish this. She raised her spear and struck at its head, skewering it. With its inhuman body, it was probably the most merciful way she could dispatch it. It was a move that definitely killed it instantly, its body swelling and popping to shower the area around it with blood. In the end though, it was a Wonder Killer, something that had pushed a girl towards death with its selfish desires. It was, in its own way, an abuser. She looked at Rika and noticed that the other girl was looking at her with pity.

"You've never dealt with something like this before, Momoe?".

"No. Nothing we see is easy to handle. But that? An Aunt doing something like that? How could any family member be like that?".

"I hear people say stuff like that about Mums all the time. Mums should be like this or that. I wish those people were true".

Momoe let out a sigh. "This is all just a lot to deal with"

"I know. There are moments where I wonder if Acca and Ura-Acca are sadists or something. There's no way us encountering some of the stuff we do can be pure coincidence, right?". 

Momoe didn't answer. She instead looked at their two egg girls. Chiaki was sobbing, while Mami was holding her with an uncomfortable expression. Rika saw this and moved towards them, looking annoyed at the last task that seemed to lie ahead. Momoe knew that this was something she should probably handle. But she was glad to have Rika here to help out. If there was one positive from this experience, it was that Momoe had a stronger feeling that she could rely on Rika.

Then she saw something fly through the air towards Chiaki and Mami. 

“Look out!”.

Chiaki tried to jump out of the way, but she wasn’t fast enough. Fortunately, Rika was able to get close enough to deflect the sudden attack with a parry from her blade. But whatever it was was able to move away fast enough that Momoe couldn't see what it was. Then something hit Momoe knocking her backwards and on to her ass. She rolled on to her feet and jumped backwards while using the staff of her spear to swing back at a bat that had at where she’d been. That made her attacker stagger and got Momoe a moment to look at them. That was far harder than it should have been. Momoe found herself straining to look at it at all. But it was obvious to Momoe what this was.

_Of course. We do have two Wonder Egg girls, after all.  
_

It was a second Wonder Killer. Worse, that Killer had some “friends” with it. There were Haters looking over the edge of the incline and more and more of them were popping their heads over the edge. As that was happening, the Wonder Killer said “Dammit! I thought that I’d take them both out at once, like a mercy kill. I think you might end up annoying me a lot. So I’m not going to let you have a chance to do that”.

It jumped back, up to the crowd of Haters and… disappeared? No, that wasn’t right. It was there, but she couldn’t focus on it. Her mind was instead filled with a drive to do the opposite, to focus on anyone but the Wonder Killer. It was like it was influencing her to ignore it and pay attention to anyone but it. But it did more than that. As Momoe’s eyes felt compelled to look at anyone but the Wonder Killer, there was a whisper in her mind.

_What’s a handsome boy like that doing here and in a skirt? Is he a crossdresser?_

_That's so weird, right?_

_I heard that's a girl, but there's no way that's true._

_Did you hear about that girl who committed suicide? I heard that she tried to make out with Momo there, but she got rejected._

_Woah, really?_

_Lots of girls are into Momo for some reason. Maybe that's why she used to dress like a guy, to get lots of girls._

_That's creepy._

Momoe gritted her teeth. More comments kept coming, still in differing voices. It was like she had the gossip of a school in her head, pushed at her hurtfully by a force she couldn’t identify. To be precise, it was a force that she wasn’t able to look for. She felt compelled to focus on anyone else while the hurtful voices kept growing louder and more varied while mixing in voices that she knew. There were a few comments, also building up, whispering of how Rika or Chiaki or Mami had said one thing or confirmed this or that rumour. 

Suddenly, Rika grabbed her shoulder, prompting Momoe to face her. Rika was clearly affected by whatever this was too. But she didn’t seem to be increasingly paralysed by it like Momoe was.

“Momoe?".

“Yeah?".

“You hearing dumbass bitches in your head too?".

Despite the torrent of comments that Momoe was hearing, that question from Rika did ease the tension in her head.

“Yes. They’re being really bitchy”.

“Thought so. They’re doing the same in my head. But it’s nothing new to me”. Rika smiled. “So, from what I know about you, they’re shit talking you about your appearance, right?".

“Plus some other stuff". Momoe paused for a moment, then decided to elaborate. "Like how they see me as either a man or a lesbian predator".

“They’re wrong. You’re a girl and you know it. I know it. The voices are just saying that stuff to hurt you. As for the idea of you being a pervert? That’s stupid. They don’t understand anything? Besides, even if you were into girls, that doesn’t make anyone a pervert or anything like that". Rika grinned. "If I ever were to consider doing the dating dance in spite of how that's gone for my mum, I'd totally feel good about dating someone like you".

"Thank you". As much as that was nice to hear, Momoe had something she needed to ask urgently. "What are the voices saying to you?".

She needed to know what Rika was being subjected to. She wanted to help her with it.

“Just stuff I’ve heard before, Momoe, a lot from my fully pink haired days. Some people can be really awful to idols. You want to know what I’m hearing now? That I’m incompetent, an ingrate, a whore, that I’m overrated, full of myself, a bitch, a liar, a murderer". 

“Murderer?".

“Yeah. That’s something more recent and I normally only hear that from one person, luckily".

Momoe was stunned by the nonchalant way Rika said that. Rika responded to Momoe's silence by rolling her eyes. She then said “Look, I’ll make one thing clear. These voices are so full of shit. Whatever they say, I’m Rika Kawai, Kawai because I’m cute and I know it. Nothing they say can change that. Nothing they say can change that, just like nothing they say can make you not be a girl or kind hearted to a fault. Got that?".

Momoe was touched by Rika's words. She was about to respond, but then Rika was hit by something thrown at her hard. Rika had been struck by a football sized object that had come at her at ridiculous speeds. While Rika managed to stay on her feet, Momoe saw what that object was as it uncurled itself.

_That thing thrown at her was a Hater? What the hell?_

Momoe then felt something hit her in her stomach. It was a very hard impact, one that sent pain screaming through her body and making her sure that she'd have a huge bruise there when the damage transferred to her in the real world. She dropped to her knees and saw Rika fighting off the Hater thrown at her, only for another two to slam into her from a different direction. Then Momoe felt something hit her. She didn't know what it was. It was probably a bunch more Haters thrown at her by this crazy Wonder Killer. But Momoe wasn't in a state to think about that. The sheer pain from this impact was enough to make her black out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will resolve this dream adventure and return us to canon. Hopefully, I can deliver that soon. As for this one, I hope you enjoyed it and that I'm not doing any characterisation screwups. If you’re liking this fic so far, I’d love it if you’d consider leaving a comment. Having some feedback would help me a lot.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had an urge to add an interlude with our other two heroines. So I’ve moved the conclusion of the egg mission to next chapter. Sorry. I hope this is at least something you'll like.
> 
> If you’re enjoying this fic so far, please consider leaving a comment.

Neiru was up late. Part of it was simply responsibilities getting in the way. Part of it was that she wanted to avoid the risk of pushing herself too much like she had once. Having something like her job in the way was something she could use against her own desire to get some extra wonder eggs and do more wonder egg missions than she should again. In regards to that, Neiru was doing her best to push her desire to get to her goal as fast she could down so she could fufill her other desire to not worry her new friends, especially Ai.

There was another thing keeping her up. She was concerned about Rika and Momoe. Yes, their bonds weren't so weak that one argument could break them. But Neiru liked having this group of friends. She couldn't help but worry about them. As far as she could tell, Rika and Momoe were either asleep or busy. They could be talking to each other. All she knew was that they seemed to be offline, though you could of course set your status as offline if you wanted to.

Fortunately, while Neiru couldn't see what the situation was with those two friends, she wasn't completely without people to talk to. In fact, she had someone she was always happy to talk to in a conversation with her as she worked.

 **Ai:** I'm feeling really buzzed now.  
 **Neiru:** You've told me.  
 **Ai:** I know. Sorry. But I'm really happy about what I was able to do today.  
 **Neiru:** Please, could you hurry up and tell me what that is?  
 **Neiru:** This continued mystery is torturing me.  
 **Ai:** Sorry. I want to share it with the three of you at once.

Neiru smiled. That would be nice, even if this secret was going to keep bothering her. But that wasn't bad. She did want to be distracted. Plus, it was something happy to look forward to. The work she was doing even as she was messaging Ai did that too, but it wasn't the same as this. Talking to Ai, especially a really happy Ai, had an infectious joy to it.

 **Neiru:** Okay. I understand.  
 **Neiru:** But now I’m feeling buzzed too.  
 **Neiru:** I’ll endure this.  
 **Ai:** So will I!  
 **Ai:** Lets do that together.  
 **Neiru:** It’s always nice to see you clearly feeling good.  
 **Neiru:** But as happy as you are, shouldn’t you go to sleep soon?  
 **Ai:** You’re awake.  
 **Neiru:** I’m still a President of a clothing company. There are things I can’t put off easily.  
 **Ai:** But you’re still a teen girl.  
 **Ai:** Shouldn’t you be allowed to sleep earlier?  
 **Ai:** I still am shocked that you’re in a position like that all. How did that happen?

Neiru wasn't sure how to respond. Her inclination was to respond honestly. But she didn’t want to suddenly put something like her parental situation, or lack of them to be precise, on a happy friend’s shoulders. She definitely didn’t want to dump that on Ai when she was in a good mood.

 **Ai:** I guess you're simply amazing enough to manage that sort of responsibility, Neiru. You’re so powerful. :o

This was fortunate. Neiru was grateful that Ai had steered the conversation away from something she wasn’t ready to drop on Ai right now. She didn't know if Ai had done that intentionally or not. But that didn't matter.

 **Neiru:** Thank you.

It might have been a response to the compliment, but Neiru meant her response for more than that. Avoiding the dead parents bomb with Ai was a relief and Ai deserved a lot of thanks for what she'd done for Neiru and the others, in her opinion. Neiru then sent an emoji, one she’d only recently gained. It was of a muscular emoji flexing. It was something she wanted to try out and this seemed like a good chance.

 **Ai:** That’s cool.

Yes. The first debut of her strongman was a success. She’d impressed Ai with it.

 **Neiru** : It is.  
 **Ai:** I want it.

Neiru pouted. Even for someone she liked as much as Ai, that request was something she could not allow.

 **Neiru:** It’s mine.  
 **Ai:** Awww.  
 **Ai:** Please let me have him.  
 **Neiru:** No  
 **Neiru:** My resolve on this is strong like he is.  
 **Ai:** Really?  
 **Neiru:** Yes.

It wasn’t. Neiru just hoped that saying so would be enough to stop Ai from unleashing her particular sort of persuasive power on Neiru. She would fold very quickly.

 **Ai:** Okay. I won’t ask again.

Her bluff had worked.

 **Neiru:** I’m translating some business letters at the moment.  
 **Ai** : From what?  
 **Neiru:** From legalese to regular Japanese.  
 **Ai:** I don’t think that counts as translation.  
 **Neiru:** It does to me.  
 **Ai:** Do you know other languages?  
 **Neiru:** Yes.  
 **Ai:** Can I test you?  
 **Neiru:** You can.

To be precise, only Ai could. She’d be annoyed if almost anyone else asked that. Ai then sent a message not in Japanese. Neiru then responded.

 **Neiru:** It means that you should know you can just ask me if you want me to help you with foreign language classes directly.  
 **Ai** : It does.  
 **Ai:** Was it that obvious?  
 **Neiru:** I remember what you sent being a textbook example.  
 **Ai:** It is.  
 **Neiru:** You aren’t at school though, so I’m curious about what made you suddenly interested in this school material?   
**Ai:** Nothing. Just curiosity.

Neiru felt like she had a strong idea what Ai’s news was now. But Ai clearly wanted to make sharing it into a moment and Neiru wasn’t going to rob her of that. She would just have to do her best at acting like it was actually a revelation to her. Neiru normally wouldn’t need to try hard at hiding her true feelings, but Ai was capable of guessing at those accurately to a degree that was both helpful and something to fear. Of course, Neiru was proud that Ai seemed to thinking of going back to school, but she needed to make sure Ai didn't see that feeling until the right moment.  
  
They kept exchanging messages for a while longer, but Neiru decided that she needed to put her foot down.

 **Neiru:** Go to sleep.  
 **Ai** : Yes, President   
**Ai:** :)  
 **Ai** : I should do that before my mum catches me awake anyway.  
 **Neiru** : Yes, you should.

Neiru put down her phone, wondering if Ai was going to actually go to sleep or not. She would find out soon enough if she recieved another message from Ai soon. She did hope that Ai did go to sleep. While it meant some loneliness for her, she also wanted Ai to look after herself more.

Stopping her work, Neiru got up to stretch her legs and get something to perk herself up. As she did, she wondered for a moment what Rika and Momoe were up to. 

_It’s probably nothing major._


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, next chapter. I was originally planning to have this and the next one planned as one chapter that would resolve the situation. But I found it easier for me to complete this as a chapter on its own. I hope that you'll like what I've put forward today. If you do, please consider leaving a comment. :)

Momoe’s eyes snapped open. Her first thought upon awaking was that being able to wake up was surprising.

_I’m alive?_

Apparently so and she wasn’t getting murdered horribly either, which felt like a miracle. There were some noises of fighting around her, but it didn’t seem to be anything major. But Momoe knew she couldn’t just stay on the ground like this and tried to force herself up. Unfortunately, her body was still healing, so doing that hurt. It hurt a lot. 

“Wait! Don’t just get up like that, idiot!”.

_Rika?_

Sure enough, her friend was nearby and rushed to her. Momoe, due to the state she was in, had to limit herself to just getting to sitting down on the ground rather than lying on it. They might have healing abilities, but they weren’t instant. A hard enough beating could still take more time than they had to recover. Rika helpfully crouched down to face Momoe at the same level. 

“I have some good news. The Haters have been driven off”. 

Momoe blinked. “What? How? Did you beat them?”.

Rika response was to point at something. Momoe hadn’t yet taken a moment to look around her. She turned her head in the direction Rika was pointing.

“Oh. Yeah”.

It was the Pomanders, currently in the process of picking off Haters. There weren’t many left and the remaining ones were clearly losing horribly. But their pets weren’t going to show mercy to the creatures that had been happy to try to brutalise the girls when they had the advantage. No, the Pomander were finishing off a Hater feast, while the few attacks the Haters made were deflected by the Turtle’s shell or the Crocodile’s scaly hide.

“We should have kept those two closer. That would have avoided a lot of pain. Especially you. At least I was still awake when those guys came to the rescue".

Her Pomander gobbled up another Hater, then noticed her gaze and met it. It might have been trying to communicate something to her. But it was a crocodile, so that wasn't working at all. If anything, this felt a bit scary. Momoe said "Good Job", which seemed to satisfy it and make it return to eating up Haters. Rika noticed her discomfort and laughed.

“What about Chiaki and Mami?”.

“Bad news there. Chiaki’s here, but Mami’s gone”.

Momoe tried to force herself to stand up, but was stopped by Rika.  
  
“Rika, Mami's in danger. We need to get to her fast”.

“Yeah, I know. But there are still ways we can get killed in this world, especially if you push yourself too hard too fast and slow down your healing”. Rika then jokingly added “I don’t think the Wonder Killer is going to give up if you cough up enough blood at them”.

“Point taken”. Momoe was then struck by a problem. “Wait, how are we going to find Mami in a place like this?".

Rika grinned and once again pointed something out. Namely, there were a lot of footprints going in one direction.

“A lot of the Haters ran off and left us a trail. Looks like the Wonder Killer bringing a bunch of minions into this screwed it over, huh”.

That was a relief. Then Momoe processed that there was something wrong near them. There was a third person with them, Chiaki. “Why is Chiaki still here? We beat her Wonder Killer”.

“Yeah. You're right, Momoe. That _is_ odd, even for this place”.

“I think we need to talk to Acca”.

“I guess”. Rika then asked “Want me to help you on to a mound you can sit on or something?".

“Sure”. 

Rika did as she said and they were able to sit together properly. They then opened up their line to Acca. 

“What is the problem?".

Momoe put forward their first issue. “We’ve beaten a Wonder Killer, but the Wonder Egg girl hasn’t left here yet”

Acca replied immediadely. “You have another Wonder Killer to bear. Perhaps that one counts as a Wonder Killer for both girls, so neither is saved until you defeat it. You have experience of this, Rika”. 

That prompted Rika to facepalm. “Seriously? This right after another Killer?". 

“Having two of you paired together naturally comes with both advantages and disadvantages. You might be more effective than if you were separated, but that means situations like this are a risk you should expect. If anything, you were lucky to have only one Wonder Killer last time. Hoping to have one Wonder Killer for two egg girls twice could be called greedy".

Rika was clearly ready to let Acca know how she felt about her supposed luck and greediness. Not that Momoe disagreed, but she decided to stop that by moving to the next issue. “Acca, this Wonder Killer had a trick I’ve never seen before. It was messing with both of our minds somehow. Yes, there are wonder killers who try to play mind games, but this one was literally influencing our minds and make us hear voices. Plus, I couldn’t look at the Wonder Killer properly. I think those two things are connected”.

“Yes, I believe you are correct. We detected the Wonder Killer exerting an influence through a mental field”. 

“How does this influence work?".

“I believe that it is an effect enabled by the two eggs you have, rather than something that the Wonder Killer can do purely on its own. Judging from what we observed, these voices it were making you hear were making negative comments about yourself. Is that right?”.

“Yes. Plus, I felt like it was forcing me to focus my attention on anyone but it”. Momoe took a deep breath, then added. “It was like it was trying to force me to associate what I was hearing with the people around me, to feel like they were attacking me instead of it".

Acca was silent for a momoment, likely thinking about what she'd said. He then said “I have an idea. This field relies on two old friends who have fallen apart to power it and seems to work in a way that would cause rifts between people and damage their mental states. Perhaps what has happened to the two girls is connected to how this field works”. 

Rika then spoke up. “Do you have anything that we can try against it? If we don’t do something soon, my egg girl is as good as gone. The Wonder Killer has her”.

“We know”, Acca said in a tone that felt like he didn't. Or more like he didn't care as much as Rika did. “I have a suggestion, though you may not like it. Like I said, this field seems to be connected to your two eggs and their trauma. It seems to feed on it and project that on to others. Therefore, you could try to help these two friends with their problems and see if helping to heal them weakens the affects of the field”.

Rika sarcasticaly replied “Oh, that’s something we can totally do. I’m sure two untrained teens can totally make a dent in two suicidal girls issues in a few hours”.

“I have no other ideas at this time and you don’t have much more time left, as you’ve pointed out".

"Fine". Rika cut off the link to Acca and sighed. She then looked at Momoe. “Do you think you can do this? I might have my unique charm, but I don't think it's suited for this".

“I can try. But it’s not like our argument happened for no reason. I can screw up at this stuff just like all of our group and I’m not a miracle worker”. Momoe frowned. “But I have to try. We don’t have any other options”.

"I guess I owe you". Rika smiled. "Just don't ask for anything big, okay?".

They then walked up to Chiaki, who looked shell shocked. Unfortunately, they couldn't give her more time. Momoe put a hand on her shoulder assuringly and said “I know this has been awful, but there's something I need to ask from you. We need to go after Chiaki and the Wonder Killer.  
While we’re making our way to their location, there's something you could do to help us. Could you help us understand this situation with you and Mami better?”.

"Why are you asking that?".

"Because we think that understanding it might be the key to beating the second Wonder Killer. That second creature, to be clear".

Chiaki nodded. Momoe and Rika withdrew their Pomanders and the three of them started walking in the direction of the Hater’s footprints, Rika and Momoe needing to support each other to keep up a good pace. That had Chiaki giving them concerned glances, but she did as asked and started talking.

“We both attended the same school. We were friends. Best friends, even. Mami had some other friends. I wasn’t good at that, but I had Mami and her friends were friendly enough to me. Things were normal for us for a couple of years. Then something changed. For some reason, the two of us were increasingly subjected to bullying. I don’t think either of us did anything to prompt it. We just seem to have been unlucky and someone just decided they didn’t like us”.

“Mami mentioned someone called Himiko in the lighthouse”, Momoe replied. 

“Yeah. We think that she was the one responsible. She didn’t do that much herself or some group of people, though I guess there were some ringleaders. Yeah, when we were along with her or if she could play it off as a joke, she could be really cruel. But the main thing she did was turn our classmates against us. She was really good at spreading gossip. Instead, it was like there was a pressure being exerted by someone to encourage those around us to not associate with us or to turn against us".

“That sounds like this Wonder Killer. But I have to ask, how sure are you about this?". 

“I never had any solid proof that it was her. But she seems like the most likely suspect".

"You know, there could have been two people targeting you at school and this Himiko could have nothing to do with this", Rika interjected. Momoe responded by giving her a disapproving look.

"It's possible, Momoe, and one of us needed to mention that before we jump into a fight with this Wonder Killer".

Chiaki shook her head. “I don't think there is another person. At least, I have no idea who that would be. Anyway, after she'd turned pushed everyone else away from us, she seemed to have thought it would be funny or something if she tried turning us against each other".

Rika said “That seems to have worked very well".

“Yeah". Chiaki looked forlorn as she said that. “I started hearing some people saying that she’d been involved in spreading gossip. I started hearing that she'd started using secrets she knew as my friend to earn favour with our bullies, that she was spilling her guts to them. At the time, I believed what I was hearing".

Rika narrowed her eyes. "While people can be like that, didn't it seem convenient at the time that those sorts of rumours started once you only had each other?".

Chiaki wilted a bit. "I was in a bad place and I was sick of dealing with her disappearing act. Plus, I was dealing with my Aunt’s mental up’s and downs. As you heard, my relationship with her was messy. We argued more and more. Then I pushed Mami to the point where she said really hurtful things to me and I did the same. Then we stopped interacting with each other. After that, my Aunt died and I followed her soon after".

That explained at least part of what had happened. But there was a problem which Rika voiced out loud. "Looks like we still need to get part of the story from Mami. We still don't have enough info to fix this until we hear her side of this".

"Sorry".

"You don't need to apologise". Momoe gave a small smile. "What you've told us should help us a lot".

"Really?".

"Yes, really".

"Thank you, Momoe".

With that, the conversation stopped. They kept walking and reached where the footprints ended. They were now at the cliff next to the sea. Rika looked around. She then said “It looks like in a cave”.

Momoe looked at the shoreline. She then noticed there was a cave entrance on a less steep part of the cliff face that could be reached by a person on foot.

"We should get our Pomanders out at the cave entrance".

"Yeah". Rika nodded, then said "There's bound to be some Hater ambushes in there".

"What about me?". That came from Chiaki.

"We'll need you to keep close to us", Momoe answered. "We'll also need you to be ready to try to talk to Mami".

"Okay". Chiaki then awkwardly added "I kind of acted like a bitch to her. It's odd, but the time here since my death has made it easier to think about things differently. I still feel like I have issues with her, but maybe I went too far with my responses". Her eyes then widened. "Oh god, I just had the thought that it took being dead for a while to make me rethink things. That's... oh, god. That's definitely something".

Rika replied "Yeah, it is. But being able to think that means you're at a point where you can do something about it. If you can see your screwups in time, then you still have a shot at fixing them. Right, Momoe?".

"Huh? Yeah, you're right".

Momoe looked at Rika. Her friend might have a harsh exterior, cynical and even appearing selfish at first, but there was more to her than that. A lot more and Momoe felt like she and Neiru lost sight of that a times. She felt that Rika herself probably lost sight of that at times, despite often making an outward show of confidence in herself. Ai didn't seem to have that problem, though she had an amazing ability to be kind and as sunny as her trademark hoodie. Momoe then decided she wanted to talk with Ai after this even more. They already needed to talk about their Mr Sawaki issues, but Momoe wanted something from Ai now. She wanted to figure out how she could, at moments like this, give Rika the sort of positivity that Ai could surely have offered her.


End file.
